JCR Meeting 19.45 Dining Hall

 

  1. Apologies & Absences

Apologies:

Absences:

 

  1. Approval of the minutes

Matters arising from the previous minutes: none

 

  1. Correspondence

FW, the Assistant Female Welfare Officer, has decided to no longer continue with her study at Durham and has therefore stepped down from her position. We would like to thank FW for all her hard work during Freshers’ Week and the rest of Michaelmas term, and wish her all the best in the future.

 

  1. Motions

i. Motion for a budget of £600 for the St. Cuthbert’s Society Charity Fashion Show 2015

This JCR Notes:

This JCR Believes:

This JCR Resolves:

Proposer: JW

Seconder: OP

 

Finance Comm verdict:

Can’t give them the £60 for food (against JCR rules)

Rounded up by £9 – which they won’t be getting

They’ll get £731, all of which will be reimbursed to the JCR

 

More than they asked for last year, but they want to raise more money than last year

Last year had a few technical problems on the night, due to low budget (arguably)

Want a more professional finish this year

Want there to be an improvement year on year (hence asking for more money)

Doesn’t want to reimburse the extra £131 for small extras (non tech), things like P&P/make up etc

 

Questions

RR – What tech are you using, do we have any that can be used?

Last year an outside company was used.

Cuth’s staging isn’t appropriate

With an external company it’s much easier to transport and set up all the kit

 

AL – If the extra money is going to the charity that’s more acceptable than returning it to the JCR

Finance comm response – There are other charitable ways in which we could use that money

 

JG – How much did you make last year

About £2500 for breakthrough breast cancer

 

MD – Welcome to use any green machine kit

– It would be good to get further investment in Green machine tech

– How would spending more money on tech mean you could make more money from the event – it’s being held in the same place

JC believes the tickets could be more expensive and it would be possible to get more people in

– if people know there will be better tech, they will be willing to pay more

OP – We will definitely be able to increase capacity on last year

Finance comm – the maximum grant would be £140 from the JCR

 

JG – if you’re expecting to increase ticket costs do you really need the donation from the JCR

Yes, we want to put on a better show

 

Amendment i

£140 would become a grant (doesn’t need to be paid back)

Proposer – JW

Seconder – OP

 

Opposition – Finance Committe

Better ways the JCR could use the money

Already lending you more than last year

Feel the money would be making sure committee members don’t lose out rather than going to charity

 

No – 53

Yes – 60

 

Amendment passed – £140 will not be payed back to the JCR

 

Vote on amended motion – no opposition, passed on a general aye

 

  1. Elections

 

  1. President

 

Questions

MF – What’s the one thing you’ll be really annoyed that you haven’t done?

EH – Not setting in place a long term plan, improve our resources/facilities

RR – Education provision – has seen a change in four years in the way people treat their degree – provide better facilities for the degree people want

 

EHo – What’s a challenge in presidency and how would you overcome it?

RR – Time management, prioritise the important things not just the fun stuff

EH – learning about finance, maths isn’t the strong point. Also governance and charitable status

 

MT – Why is this a good option for you in terms of entering your adult life?

EH – This would be the perfect opportunity to utilise all my skills – wants to work in student support

RR – I’m a people person and enjoy talking to people, doesn’t want to be sat in front of a computer running engineering programs

 

CR – What would you do to switch off and get away from it all?

RR – Good at distracting himself from his degree with cuth’s things, would do sport or other hobbies (hockey)

EH – Coronation Street

 

CS – There’s a blurred balance between work and social life at university – could you manage to be focused at work and not just bet binned all the time?

EH – would be the perfect job – not yet mentally ready for the adult world

RR – it’s just a job – there’s time to socialise and relax outside of that

 

  1. Vice-President

MC

Prop – HLE

Sec – CR

 

Reliable, outgoing and dedicated to cuth’s

Wider range stash items – update with some fresh new ideas

Competitions to design stash

Loves the current newsletter format – make it longer for some issues to get in more detail

– release special editions with sports news/welfare campaigns/people we don’t often hear from in college (LGBT/Postgrads)

Handbook – top 10 tips for freshers week, past experiences etc, make it clear that it’s okay to enjoy a quiet night in – don’t always have to go to the bar

Sexual health/safety and consent in the handbook – advertise college support systems

Promote nighttime safety especially

Works well in a team, worked on welfare committee and as stool – has experience or governance and a good understanding of the running of the JCR and wants to play a more prominent role

Sports and societies really improve relationships and confidence and general happiness of students, wants to advertise these all more heavily to students and get involved with them

 

iii. Female Welfare Officer

JG

Proposer: HR

Seconder: AL

 

Currently in the role, has good existing working relationships

Fully trained, does all the things that needs doing, has restructured the campaigns team – wants to make welfare mean more to more people

Has rewritten the union standing orders for LGBT reps

Compulsory consent classes for every freshers

Goes above and beyond

Wants to run a campaign with WED comm across all colleges to improve river safety – needs to be taken to the highest level –

– swimming lessons/health and safety lessons should you end up in the water

work more with the disabilities service so students that are struggling get extra help

integrate international/mature/pgs from the very beginning – don’t lose them

Will work her arse of for each and every one of us

 

Questions

EHo – How will you make sure you have enough time for yourself and your degree?

Something JG has struggled with, she’s working on it at the moment, switches phone emails etc off at 8pm

She’s learning to balance things on the job

 

AL – Cuth’s isn’t very disability friendly, how would you improve it?

Will take time

Wants to improve wheelchair access – take it to Welfare, Equality and DIversity Committee and make it university wide

 

CR – You share the job with another person who isn’t as kind and friendly as CR?

Ask them nicely, working better at delegation

About creating a good working relationship with whoever it is – thinks she can do that

 

MC – How would you expand the welfare campaigns to those that live out?

Social media is very good for awareness campaigns, wants events to bring livers out back in – silent disco raising money for charity etc – get people involved in things because they’re fun, not because it’s welfare

 

AlN – How do you think you can be welfare officer without detriment to your own welfare?

Time management and switching yourself off to certain things, learn to separate the personal life with welfare work, delegate to the committee and campaign team, schedule drop ins and stick to meetins in these times

 

  1. Male Welfare Officer

 

  1. Librarian

 

  1. Treasurer

MC

Proposer – JC

Seconder – PW

 

Reliable, responsible, the right person for the job

Has been a member of finance comm since 2013, has a lot of experience in JCR financial matters

Treasurer of volleyball – knows what it likes from that perspective

Head of finance of Durham University Electric Motor Sports – a lot of experience negotiating with the ‘higher ups’

– looked after all of their cashbooks and accounts

– looks after the logistics of shipping a car and a team to australia

– looking after a budget of £65000

Is a committed webmaster of cuths.com and has recently revamped it

 

What he’ll do – the best treasurer in the world is the one you don’t notice, just make sure everything runs smoothly

There are always improvements to be made

This years treasurer has made lots of improvements to the committee and matt would continue this

 

MH

Proposer: AO

Seconder: EHo

 

Should be organised, accurate and a good communicator

Been involved over the last three years – rugby, finance comm, panto, social comm, helped welfare, helped set up photography, chillaxin, organised a mural painting

Finance experience – designed durham regatta shirts and created the business plan – boat club made over £2500 with the profits from this

President of art soc last year

Wrote the dark room budget

Maintain current system with finance comm member taking on different roles – helps develop their skills

– would introduce a training system before they started the committee

Introduce a training system for treasurers

Be punctual with reclaim forms and tax returns

Improve sponsorship for sports teams and societies – create a role on finance comm to do this

Passionate about cuth’s – a life changing experience, has received a lot of help – realises everything is underpinned by finance

Wants to give back to the JCR and enable people to have the same great experiences she has had in her time here

 

Questions:

 

MF – How would you manage your time to ensure you do your degree?

MC – Has experience with balancing lots of small tasks, when he gets a job he just does it, has a to do list book

MH – Has to do lists, goes cold turkey on facebook etc

 

MT – Finance Comm is boring, how do you make it more engaging?

MH – People having different roles, having small group tasks and discussion

MC – Matt really enjoys the meetings, you just have to understand that financial matters are a bit slow, finance comm socials

OW – cocaine and strippers

 

CR – What do we spend the most money on as a JCR?

MC – MT

MH – Yeah, MT

MT  – Worth every penny

 

MD – Where could we better allocate the money next year?

MH – Sponsorship, more money into societies, take from social side of things – we could get better sponsorship for cuths day etc

MC – shove the money at sports at sports and societies, also cuths day – spend the money on the things that influence most number of people

 

vii. Brooks Assistant Bar Steward (live-in)

 

viii. Bailey Assistant Bar Steward (live-in)

 

  1. Any Other Business

 

3rd feb – live out exec elections

 

6a. If you are at all affected by issues relating to river safety, please get in touch with our welfare team

6b. MT will be attending a meeting re: river safety – is there anything we want bringing up?

Police are extra harsh to college bars and necessarily to bars in town

Apparently there should be a police presence but there currently isn’t and no one gets taken home and checked up on (as the guidelines suggest they would)

Needs to be a system whereby if you’re kicked out for being too drunk you have to be looked after – currently not happening

A safety video for students

Why has nothing changed between each of the incidents

The process of a river safety review is underway, we obviously want immediate action but there is a grander long term plan (but this takes time)

The petition – is it worth writing a motion similar to the petition – we can say the entire student body as cuth’s believes something – gives it more weight at a university level

– suggestion that some things suggested in the petition are not appropriate e.g. lighting – thinks that if there are lights it will encourage people to use the paths – people use them anyway – if they actually went there at night they would see that

– they need to do somethign differntly – clearly whats going on now isn’t working

Nightbus – work in progress

Surely we should put up barriers? It’s a public space though – and we are adults, we need to be responsible for ourselves

Barriers along the side of the river

We ought to keep in general and say something needs to be done rather than specific solutions

Other places (Shewsbury has lights along the river and no one falls in)

Sometimes the paths that are dangerous – icy slippy paths – can be dangerous early in the morning too (not just because people are drunk)

People challenge the petition based on lighting/cctv etc

Believe that CCTV is very important – there should be more than one image tracking someone through the whole city centre

We only hear about the students but this happens to local people as well